18 December 2001
Transcript: Defense Department Briefing, December 18, 2001
(Afghanistan/remaining tasks, terrorism campaign, Afghanistan/U.S.
forces, Afghan fighters/role under new government, Osama bin
Laden/whereabouts, detainees in U.S. custody/interrogation,
Afghanistan/bombing lull, al Qaeda/tracking and attacking, Mullah
Omar/whereabouts, Yemen/al Qaeda, Afghanistan/FBI presence,
Afghanistan/possible WMD sites, U.S. mission/security force for Kabul,
John Walker/disposition, coalition/intelligence-sharing) (5620)
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Vice Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace briefed.
Following is the Defense Department transcript:
(begin transcript)
DoD News Briefing - Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz and Gen. Pace
(Also participating: Marine Corps General Peter Pace, vice chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff.)
Wolfowitz: Good morning. I just want to open up here with three main
points.
First, we keep saying this -- I think we can't say it often enough --
that there's still a great deal more work to be done in Afghanistan.
As you know, Secretary Rumsfeld paid a visit to our troops in
Afghanistan over the weekend. Obviously, they are very pumped, and I
think he was very impressed by their morale and their spirit.
He told them that the defeat of al Qaeda, when it's complete, will
just be the first round in a protracted struggle. And as those troops
understand very well, the bell ending the first round hasn't rung yet.
There's still plenty of al Qaeda loose in Afghanistan, and of course
the hunt for bin Laden and other senior members of al Qaeda continues.
Armed Taliban forces and senior leaders like Mullah Omar and/or
Zawahiri in the al Qaeda structure are still at large. And I would
say, again, that we can expect half-defeated enemies to continue to
pose considerable dangers and risks to our troops.
So it's going to be a difficult job. We're going to have to work to
root them out. Afghanistan is a country roughly the size of the state
of Texas, and the terrain is much more hospitable to those who want to
run and hide than to those who have the job of rooting them out. So
we're going to keep at that job, and it is important to keep focused
on that job.
Secondly, that the war does not end in Afghanistan, though we have
made significant progress there in the three months since September
11th.
I think a measure of that progress is Secretary Rumsfeld's meeting
with Hamid Karzai over the weekend. Karzai will be the leader of the
six-month interim government that's to be installed on Saturday. The
secretary said yesterday it's important to the United States that
there be a government, that it not be a Taliban government and it be a
government that is representative of the people of Afghanistan.
But despite this progress, as the president has said, as the secretary
has said, the campaign begins in Afghanistan, but it doesn't end
there. The war on terrorism is about more than one man. It's about
more than one terrorist network. It's about the whole complex of
global terrorist networks that interact and support one another. So
we're going to continue to use every tool at our disposal -- not just
the military -- to go after those cells throughout the world.
I guess finally, and importantly, the armed forces are doing a
magnificent job. I think Secretary Rumsfeld's visit this past weekend
was an opportunity to highlight the role that our brave men and women
are performing and, I guess, also a chance for the secretary to show
that he can sing a mean "Happy Birthday." (Laughs.)
With that, I ask General Pace if he has any opening comments.
Pace: Thanks, Mr. Secretary.
We still have significant amounts of strike aircraft available to
support forces on the ground. As we stand in front of you right now,
there are no bombs being dropped in support of forces, but they are
flying overhead and available to do that.
As you know, there's a great deal of work left to be done -- very
dangerous work. We have our engineers, who are assisting in the
preparation of the airfields at Bagram and Kandahar and at Rhino,
itself. In Mazar-e Sharif, we had, as you know, a soldier injured with
a mine. In Bagram, previously, we had Marines who were injured by
mines. So this is still very, very dangerous work. There's still a lot
to be done, and I know you know that.
And I also know you have a lot of questions, so why don't we go ahead
and get to them?
Q: For General Pace, at the moment: what kinds of strike aircraft are
in the area, and exactly how are they lending support?
Pace: The same aircraft that we've had in the campaign every day --
B-52s -- bombers -- you've got B-1s; you have F-14s, F- 18s, Harrier
jump jets -- not any of ours, but off the Italian ship, Garibaldi.
What they do now, as they have done for the last several weeks, is fly
into Afghan airspace, go to a designated orbit point and be available
to respond to calls from the people we have on the ground.
Q: General Pace --
Q: General, you noted there's a great deal of work to be done. Can you
talk a little about who will be doing it or, more to the point, what
role the Afghan fighters will now face, since they sort of feel
they've accomplished what they wanted, and some of them want to go
home?
Pace: Well, what the Afghan fighters do will be certainly directed by,
I'm sure, the government that will be installed on the 22nd of
December. So I will not try to speak for the new government there.
Our mission remains the same -- to -- the same that we had when we
went into Afghanistan, which is to eliminate the al Qaeda, to
eliminate the Taliban leadership, and to leave behind an Afghanistan
that's not host to terrorist organizations.
Q: (Off mike) --
Wolfowitz: I would add to that, too. I mean, we've put substantial
rewards out for people to help us find these folks, and I'm sure
that's motivational. But what is also clear from the reports that I
think you're seeing, as well as we, that there's no -- there's a good
deal of Afghan anger at these terrorists and at what the terrorists
did to their country over the last five years. So I think there's both
a -- we're going to get cooperation, people who are looking for
rewards, but I think we're also going to get cooperation from people
who genuinely hate the terrorists.
Q: Mr. Secretary, I have a policy question, but I'd like to make a
comment to General Pace first. Contrary to the Washington Post article
in the Style section last week, you don't have big ears.
But anyway, a policy question, Mr. Secretary. It now seems, to use the
analogy of the secretary, that perhaps Osama bin Laden has flown the
coop. If he uses Pakistan as a transit point, what countries in the
world do you think would be willing to accept him? And would we be
willing to go to war with those countries to get him?
Wolfowitz: I just think any country in the world that would knowingly
harbor bin Laden would be out of their minds. And I think they've seen
what happened to the Taliban, and I think that's probably a pretty
good lesson to people not to do that.
Obviously, if he goes into Pakistan, the Musharraf government and, I
think, many of the people of Pakistan will be helping us to find him.
That doesn't mean that there aren't people there who will be
sympathizers. And this man -- we don't know where he is now, and he
could be on the run.
Q: Well, Mr. Secretary, you mentioned in your opening statement --
Q: May I do a follow-up, please? May I do a follow-up? Excuse me. A
follow-up, if I may, according to protocol.
The follow-up is, if such countries such as Libya and maybe even Cuba
--
Wolfowitz: I didn't know there was protocol here. (Laughs.)
Q: One would hope, Mr. Secretary. We do get a follow-up -- (off mike).
Countries such as Libya, Arabic-speaking, maybe even Cuba might be
willing to take him. The question remains -- my first question -- if
that's true, would we be willing to go to war, as we're doing in
Afghanistan, to get him back?
Wolfowitz: Well, my answer remains, they would be crazy to harbor him.
Yes, sir?
Q: Mr. Secretary, you mentioned in your opening remarks that due to
the terrain of that region, it's easier to hide than to hunt out
people in that region. What's the possible timetable for a full search
of the Tora Bora caves to be completed? Is it weeks? Months? What are
you looking at? And is it possible that bin Laden could still be
somewhere in those caves?
Wolfowitz: Look, I think it's possible he could be dead in the bottom
of one of them, and I don't think -- unless General Pace wants to put
a timetable on it, I think I'd be very wary of suggesting how long
it's going to take to even find out what we can find out.
After all, one of the things we've found out over the course of time
is that there were more caves there than we realized before we started
this operation. So I would hesitate to predict.
Pace: This really is very, very difficult. First of all, you have
several valleys in the Tora Bora complex. Each of them is several
miles long. In each of those valleys you have several hundred caves.
And you want to go through very methodically, one by one, and if it's
been closed by bombs, determine whether or not you want to open it up
to see what's in there. And if it's not been closed by bombs, you have
to determine whether or not it's worth going in. So it's going to be
step by step, cave by cave, and to put a time limit on that would be
imprudent right now.
Q: Can you give us your assessment of who you believe you have, either
qualitatively or any other way you care to, in the pool of prisoners,
especially in Tora Bora? There are indications that you have some
fairly important people. Can you give us any idea of who they might
be, the type of person they might be, the level in the al Qaeda
organization they might be?
Wolfowitz: The answer is really we're still working on that. I
imagine, by the way, that if you were a high-level person in that
group of prisoners, you would be doing your best to conceal that fact
and suggest you were just some innocent person who got duped into the
whole thing.
We do know that we've got five detainees aboard the Peleliu -- one
Australian, one American, and three Taliban/al Qaeda. We think we know
who they are, and if they're who we think they are, they're fairly
important people. But one of the reasons not to start identifying them
yet is we're not sure that their comrades necessarily know that we
have them. So --
Q: Among the things that the prisoners are supposedly telling you, in
addition to ratting on each other, to help you identify who the guy in
the next room may be, is their anecdotal knowledge of where bin Laden
has been recently. Can you describe for us the kinds of things that
you are hearing from them about where you think he has been, from
their testimony, recently?
Wolfowitz: The things that I have seen -- and I'm not -- you know,
we're dealing with a fast-moving situation, and a lot of the
information is down with the people who are doing the questioning --
I'd say most of what I have seen seems to be secondhand reports, that
we're not talking to people who are at least telling us that they met
with bin Laden or they talked with bin Laden.
I think one guy claims that he saw bin Laden from some several hundred
yards away. It's that quality of information; it was a pretty confused
situation. So I guess that's where I'd leave it for now.
Yes, Malcolm (sp).
Q: Mr. Secretary, you said during your opening remarks that "The war
does not end in Afghanistan" -- your words. And you are widely
reported to be an advocate of spreading the war into Iraq. I'd be
happy to hear your comment on that, but if I could also ask, many
people now assertively around the world -- leaders around the world --
are expressing apprehension about that. I'd appreciate your comments
on that, from your point of view.
Wolfowitz: I keep coming back that we have a lot of work to do in
Afghanistan. That is our focus for now, and it's important it stay
focused. I think the places that we're going to be looking at
immediately beyond Afghanistan are, first and foremost, those places
where we think senior al Qaeda might be trying to escape to or those
places where we have tentatively identified possible al Qaeda people
hanging out, but -- you know, the president's made it very clear what
the broad objective is. The question of timing and tactics is a very
complicated and a fairly subtle one.
Q: Well, if I could follow up, the description you just gave about
where you will look next would not seem to be a description of Iraq.
Would you agree with that?
Wolfowitz: Look, I don't -- we don't discuss future operations, and
I'm not going to do it now. I said I think our immediate priority is
on Afghanistan and on people who may be escaping from Afghanistan. But
I think the broad objective remains, and it's going to be up to the
president to decide what other things we may do.
Q: There are reports there are now 18 prisoners in U.S. custody. Could
you say more about your interrogation plans for them -- what you
expect, what you hope to learn from them, how extensive this
interrogation will be, how long it will go on -- and then, beyond the
interrogation, what plans would you have once you get the information
from them that you want?
Wolfowitz: Well, the first priority is to get information from them
and, first and foremost, information that can lead us to the capture
of other terrorists, and I would say, particularly, frankly, the
capture of terrorists here in the United States or in other places
where they may be planning operations.
They're more likely to have immediate knowledge of people in
Afghanistan, and, obviously, we're looking for that information. And I
think as long as we continue to believe they have intelligence value,
that will remain our priority. But at some point, any number of them
are going to have issues of judicial punishment to be considered, and
at some point, we'll have to consider under what jurisdiction that
applies.
Q: If I could --
Wolfowitz: But we're still a very long way from there, and it's a
complicated business, and you can't, you know -- someone said the
other day, in commenting on the terrorists who were arrested in
connection with the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombings, that these
guys are very skilled liars. They lie shamelessly; when you catch them
out in a lie, they go on to another lie.
So that gives you -- this was speaking about some of the people we've
convicted for past terrorist acts. So I think that gives you an idea
that this is not a simple matter, you sit down and have an interview
and then you dispose of the information. And it's a reason also to
keep each one of them guessing as to what we've learned from someone
else.
Q: If I could just follow up, we understood that there were about
3,000 prisoners that were being held by alliance forces west of
Mazar-e Sharif, and that 15 of those had been selected and are on
their way to Kandahar. Can you tell us what the significance of those
15 are? Do you believe that they have the kind of information that
you're looking for? Are they senior al Qaeda? How have they been
selected, or are they just the first bunch to go through this process?
Wolfowitz: There are 15 that are moving from Sherberghan to Kandahar.
My understanding, but General Pace may know better, is that they were
selected because they -- we concluded they, in conjunction with the
people holding them, that these were people who might have important
information or might be themselves senior people.
We've heard that number -- 3,000. There's no precise number. I would
say, probably, if you stuck to the figure "hundreds," you'd probably
be closer to what's accurate. But they're holding a lot of people up
there, and we've made it clear that where there's any reason to think
that they're al Qaeda or senior Taliban people that we would like to
get our hands on them to interrogate them.
Q: A question for General Pace. General Pace, you said that no bombs
are falling right now on Afghanistan. How long has no bombs been
falling on Afghanistan, and is this the first time since October 7th
that no bombs have been falling on Afghanistan?
Pace: As I stand here and since we've been in here now about 15
minutes, for all I know bombs are falling on Afghanistan -- (laughter)
-- because the intent is to provide proper support at the proper time.
The aircraft are available. Some days there is a lot of targets. Some
days there are not. Today at this point in time -- up until this point
in time, there had not been a lot of targets that needed to be
serviced from the air on the ground. It is simply a matter of our
forces on the ground calling for support. When they call, I just want
you to know that in fact we still continue to have the same level of
effort overhead as we have had the last several weeks.
Q: But still, is this a major shift in the air war since October 7th?
Pace: No, I wouldn't use the word "shift." I would say it's a very
natural transition from occupying territory that was previously held
by the enemy to now having most of their territory under opposition
control and now beginning to focus in on the pockets of enemy
resistance and then determining what the best weapons system is. And
sometimes the best weapons system is an individual with a rifle. Other
times, the best weapons system is a plane with a bomb on it. And
that's what we're doing.
Q: Sir, can you quantify a little bit the number of al Qaeda who have
escaped from the Tora Bora area? You know, if you've got AC- 130s that
have sensors that can track, you've got JSTARS airplanes -- just rough
order, how many have escaped in the last three or four days? And do
AC-130 gunships now have leeway to fire on those they see fleeing?
Pace: The AC-130 gunships will continue to respond to calls for fire
by individuals on the ground or cueing from our other assets that are
able to see specific targets. They do not have -- that's how they are
-- their weapons are employed.
Q: They don't have free-fire authority, though. They have to be cued
and authorized?
Pace: They are being cued and authorized. That's correct.
Q: How many al Qaeda do you think have escaped in --
Pace: We don't know. We do not know. We do know that -- because we
don't know how many were in that valley in the first place, nor in the
valleys next to it. So it's impossible to quantify how many were
killed, and it's impossible to quantify how many got away.
Wolfowitz: And let --
Q: But don't these sensors that can track moving targets -- we've got
JSTARS and all these other high-tech --
Wolfowitz: No, there's a difference between having --
Q: (Off mike) -- okay.
Wolfowitz: -- and we do -- remarkable capabilities focused on a
particular kind of target -- to follow, for example, a convoy moving
along a road. But it is a completely different matter if you say, "Can
you observe an entire difficult mountainous area that is wooded and
look for people who are walking on foot?" Again, we may have an
ability, if we knew a party of individuals in a specific location, to
bring some assets to bear to find them, but I would try to dispel the
notion that as good as our intelligence is -- and it's amazing, and no
country's ever had it before -- that you can maintain the kind of
surveillance over a large border area like that and watch people
crossing.
Q: Mr. Secretary, you said that the quality of intelligence about bin
Laden is, at best, secondhand. Does that apply also for Mullah Omar?
Is there any clearer picture this week than it was last week about the
rough whereabouts of Omar?
Wolfowitz: First of all, just to clarify I said the intelligence that
I've seen appears to be secondhand. I mean, I can't say that I've seen
everything.
I think the people who know the best are the people who are there on
the ground, and not necessarily from the Defense Department. So that
-- I was trying to characterize what we are seeing that gets reported
back here at the Pentagon.
With respect to Mullah Omar, with the same qualification applied, I'd
say that we have less current information on him. It's been longer
since we've seen even what sounded like convincing second-hand
reports, much less firsthand reports. To the best of our knowledge, he
is probably -- "probably" meaning greater than 50 percent, but not
necessarily much greater -- (chuckles) -- still in Kandahar area, but
he could be even outside of the country.
Q: Mr. Secretary, last time you were before us, you talked about doing
reconnaissance in areas -- possible escape routes or countries that al
Qaeda people could flee to. And today, there's reports out of Yemen
that Yemen special forces have conducted a raid on several al Qaeda
people -- possibly somebody who had just come from Afghanistan. Do you
know anything about that? Is that supported by U.S. information?
Wolfowitz: I don't know about the raid. I do know that for some time,
we've been concerned that there are areas of Yemen, particularly in
the back country, near the Saudi border, that actually happens to be
near bin Laden's native village on the Saudi side of the border; that
there are pockets where we believe al Qaeda people have sheltered and
may be there now and where the Yemeni government doesn't have much
control over its own territory. I'm not aware of this report on
special forces, although we have been urging the Yemenis to do more.
Do you know, Pete?
Pace: I do not.
Wolfowitz: Okay.
Q: Could you update us on the situation in Kandahar? And what is the
FBI doing there?
Pace: On the ground in Kandahar right now, Marines, U.S. Army and
others are working on, first, preparing the airfield so it can handle
more and larger air -- aircraft -- excuse me -- they are clearing
mines. They are building a facility that will help to keep secure the
battlefield detainees, and that's about it right now.
Wolfowitz: And on the FBI, I don't know numbers. I'm generally aware
that they are in Afghanistan in a couple of places -- partly helping
us, because they have information about some of the people that we're
talking to. But we're also trying to facilitate their access to
information that could help them back here.
Q: Mr. Secretary, General, it's been some time since we had an update
on the search for sites of suspected weapons of mass destruction.
Originally, there was some talk about 40. Have those all been visited?
Have new sites been discovered? And has any tangible evidence been
found of any chemical or biological or radioactive-type material?
Pace: I can get you the exact numbers. There have been a few added.
I'm not sure how many. It's probably in the vicinity now of about 50,
but I need to get that for you, for the record. [More than 50 sites
are being checked.]
We are in fact going through, step by step, as we are with the caves
-- going through each site systematically to determine what's there,
taking soil samples and the like. There have been a couple of
locations where we have found documentation that is the chemistry set
equivalent of "this is how to make a bomb in your basement." But the
documentation on how to do that is not linked with any physical
evidence that in fact that occurred in a particular location. So
that's about what we have right now.
Q: Conventional bombs?
Pace: Some on conventional and some on other -- biological and
chemical weapons.
Q: Mr. Secretary, having made the capture or the killing of bin Laden
a major objective and wanting to both stop his activities and deter
other would-be terrorists, how important is it to find him? And can
the war be considered a success until you do, or if you don't?
Wolfowitz: I think we've tried to make clear from the beginning that
this is not about one individual, that if you had to pick a single
individual that's most important, it's -- he's probably the one, but
frankly, we -- you know, there are others who probably were
instrumental in planning September 11th, that are among the top
leadership.
I think the real measure of success is going to be when we can go to
sleep at night comfortably, not worrying about whether terrorists are
going to strike next. And it is a matter of de-fanging that network
and the networks that work with them, and, as the secretary put it,
draining the swamp.
Q: But would the president and others, having said that we will bring
him to justice, one way or the other -- do we risk losing a little bit
of the message we're trying to send around the world if we don't?
Wolfowitz: I think the president said if it takes months, if it takes
years, we're going to keep after this man. And he's going to be -- if
he's still alive, he'll be a man with a price on his head, he'll be a
man who people will be a in great danger if they -- sheltering him.
But again, I think the real measure of success here -- and it's going
to be a while before we get there -- is to end the fear of terrorism.
Q: You said just a moment ago that the FBI -- using your words -- has
information about some of the people over there, that they're -- what
do you mean by that? Are they -- some of the people who are the
combatants over there, who have been taken captive, so high up in the
pecking order that the FBI thinks they may have been directly involved
in September 11th?
Wolfowitz: I didn't mean anything that specific. It may be the case.
I don't know the specifics. What I do know is the FBI, through its
many investigations, including investigations preceding September
11th, has a great deal of information about the structure of al Qaeda,
about the role of key leaders. And when you get into an interrogation,
and I'm an amateur at this, but obviously you do a much better job
questioning people if you have some idea what the answers are, and the
FBI in many cases has some idea of what the answers are. But I didn't
mean to suggest that I know the FBI is specifically interested in
these specific individuals.
Q: To sort of follow up, you keep on referring to Osama bin Laden --
"if he's alive," that type of thing. Is there a growing feeling that
perhaps he was killed?
Wolfowitz: No. I just -- I'm really trying to emphasize how much we
don't know about this man and his whereabouts. No, I don't think
there's a growing feeling he's been killed. There's just a lack of
knowledge of where he is right now.
Yes, sir?
Q: Mr. Secretary, you once said that you thought that the Afghans
would be looking for Osama bin Laden because of the reward and because
they're angry, but some of the commanders, the Afghan commanders in
the area have indicated the war is over and they're ready to pull
their troops out. Would the American and British forces that are there
continue the search if our allies kind of pull out of the territory?
Wolfowitz: We continue to have a mission to go after al Qaeda and
after the Taliban senior leadership, and that mission is our mission,
regardless of what other people view as their mission. But I just go
back -- I believe that we will continue to find a lot of help in
Afghanistan.
Q: Mr. Secretary, will the continuation of the fight in Afghanistan
from the American point of view delay the deployment of a
multinational force?
Wolfowitz: No. We believe that the multinational -- I guess it's
called the security assistance force for Kabul can be deployed, and we
can de-conflict its mission from our mission.
Q: Concerning John Walker, how much longer do you intend to hold him?
His attorney, his family attorney has said that his constitutional
rights may be violated by not being able to meet with an attorney. And
also, do you have any plans to turn him over to the Justice
Department?
Wolfowitz: We're still considering what to do with him. There's no
decision yet.
Q: Concerning John Walker, can you --
Q: On that topic, can you talk about the rules governing him? I mean,
how long can you hold him without lett
ing him see his lawyer? And he's a detainee but he's not a prisoner of
war. What are the rules on that?
Wolfowitz: I think I'd probably ask general counsel to give you the
exact rules, but he is being held under -- he's being treated
consistent with the Geneva protections for prisoners of war. So he
enjoys all the protections that would go with prisoner of war status,
but he is not a legal combatant, and therefore he's not legally a
prisoner of war.
Q: He's not a legal combatant. Does that mean that you believe that he
is al Qaeda and not a Taliban? How do you classify this man?
Wolfowitz: I don't want to make a judicial judgment here.
We know he was fighting in an area with Taliban/al Qaeda forces. That
much I know. Beyond that, I don't know how we would classify him
legally.
Q: To what extent is he cooperating, and is he providing any
information of value in terms of the investigation into al
Qaeda/Taliban leadership? Can you -- can you share --
Wolfowitz: I really don't know the current status.
Do you --
Pace: I do not.
Q: Mr. Secretary, when you talked about the prisoners being -- giving
information, but largely being second-hand, were you talking about
sort of the older group of prisoners from the north, the ones that are
being transferred, or were you talking about the prisoners, the Tora
Bora prisoners, who I guess you may have had some access but you do
not have custody of?
Wolfowitz: I was specifically referring to the reports I had seen --
and remember, these are preliminary reports -- for prisoners in the
Tora Bora area. Now, the people up north, I don't -- it's been a long
time since any of them have suggested --
Q: Even the Tora Bora prisoners you feel do not have very recent
direct contact --
Wolfowitz: No, what I'm saying is what they've told us so far that has
gotten up to me doesn't suggest recent knowledge. But on the other
hand, somebody might be sitting on recent knowledge and not telling
us, or somebody down at the local level may already be telling us
things. As General Pace said, this is a situation that changes every
15 minutes.
Q: Are the five being held on the Peleliu and the 15 being transferred
from Mazar, is that the total number of detainees now being held by
the U.S.? Or do you have a good total number?
Wolfowitz: That's correct.
Q: And so, it's 20.
Pace: It is right now. In a half-hour, it might be more than that.
Q: Mr. Secretary, before you sent the troops to Afghanistan the United
States has shared with friends and allies what you called evidence
that Osama bin Laden was behind the attack on September 11th. If you
go into war with Iraq, Somalia, or whatever you want, are you going to
share a lot of evidence to the same extent that Osama bin Laden has a
connection with those countries?
Wolfowitz: Look, you know, this -- (laughs) -- this is a clever way to
get me to discuss future operations; it won't work. But I think the
general principle that we -- as it's made clear, we will do the best
job we can consistent with protecting our sources and methods of
intelligence to make sure that the countries that are with us
understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. And we do believe
that maintaining that level of international solidarity is important
to success.
Thank you.
Pace: Thank you.
Q: Happy holidays.
Wolfowitz: Merry Christmas. Thank you.
Q: Thank you.
(end transcript)
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